anxious prayers they addressed to the Creator of all, to direct their judgment, and enable them to

find out the truth.

no one is entitled to

be

Till we ascertain these facts, say, how far these men were qualified to judge with regard to the Scriptures, or to hold up their opinions as of any weight or authority. But, however ignorant we may of the length of time, and the care which these eminent men have devoted to the study of Christianity, we can judge precisely of the value of their authority on such subjects, when we find that the chief objects of their reasoning, their sarcasm and their wit, are the errors in opinion, or inconsistency in practice, of those who are called Christian; and that they never meet one doctrine of the Scriptures fairly, so as to prove its falsehood by fact or by legitimate reasoning, but give a view of it in the highest degree distorted, so as to enable them to pour out their whole force of bitter sarcasm and irony in their pretended refutation of it. I do not mean to deny that, for the most part, when they have directed themselves to a refutation of the errors and vices of real or nominal Christians, that their reasoning is just, their conclusions irresistible, and their irony and sarcasm, in a measure, excusable. But we must

never allow ourselves to fall into the mistake which they have unfortunately made, that, in refuting these errors, they have, in the least degree, shaken the truth or authority of the Scriptures themselves, which contain as severe and bitter denunciation against the errors which Christians commit in life and opinion, as are to be found in the writings of the most distinguished unbelievers. Their authority, therefore, ought to be entirely set aside; and if authority is at all to be attended to, in a case where every man is qualified, and ought to judge for himself, we can oppose to them the authority of such men as Milton, Newton, and Pascal, whose genius and fame can suffer nothing in a competition with those of Hume, Voltaire, and Gibbon.

His lordship asked me, what I thought of the theory of Warburton, that the Jews had no distinct idea of a future state, and that a state of future rewards and punishments was not, in the slightest degree, alluded to in any of the books of Moses? I said, "that I had often seen, but had never read, his Divine Legation of Moses, although I was well acquainted with his theory, from having seen it so often stated and alluded to in other works. It is not necessary," I said, "to read his

book to form a clear and decided opinion upon its subject, as we have the Bible and the whole history of man to guide us. No nation has ever been found without having some idea of a future state, and it would be strange to conclude, that the Jews were a solitary exception. Many passages of the Pentateuch distinctly imply it, and many events of the Jewish history, as well as the obvious import and meaning of the whole of their ceremonial law, must have rendered the idea familiar to those who were capable of reflection and observation. Had Warburton read his Bible with more simplicity and attention, and not allowed himself to be misled by the ambition of displaying his vast stores of erudition, he would have enjoyed a more solid and honourable, though perhaps less brilliant fame, than that which time has awarded to him."

He said one of the greatest difficulties which he had met with, and which he could not overcome, was the existence of so much pure and unmixed evil in the world, as he had witnessed; and which he could not reconcile to the idea of a benevolent Creator. He added, that wherever he had been, he had found vice and misery predominant, and that real happiness and virtue were rarely, if

ever, to be seen. He had made it, he said, his business to converse with, and inquire into, the history of many wretched and deformed creatures with whom he had met, and he generally found their history a record of unvarying misery from their (very birth. "How had these offended their Creator, to be thus subjected to misery? and why do they live and die in this wretched state, most of them without the Gospel being preached to them, and apart from the happiness which it is said to produce? And of what use are they in this world? Many are constantly suffering under bodily evils and pains; many are suffering from the constant pressure of poverty; many are doomed to incessant toil and labour, immersed in ignorance and superstition, and neither having time nor capacity to read the Bible, even if it were presented to them.” I said, "that the origin of evil would lead us into too wide a field for the present. I granted the extensive existence of evil in the universe, to remedy which the Gospel was proclaimed. I did not believe, however, that the marks of the benevolence of the Deity were so scantily dispensed, either in the moral or physical world, as his lordship seemed to imagine; on the contrary, that they were conspicuous and innumerable, though

mankind blindly shut their eyes to the perception of them. Moral evil was precisely in proportion to the vice and error which prevailed, and to the want of virtue and piety. I doubted if those miserable creatures, whom his lordship had met with, were so exclusively wretched as they represented themselves. They would naturally magnify their evil state, in order to obtain his lordship's sympathy or assistance; and did we see (without being ourselves observed) the whole course of their lives, we should find as much contentment and comfort, perhaps, as among those whose condition appeared to stand in no need of our sympathy. Physical evils are far inferior to those which affect the mind. Privations that are hopeless of remedy are invariably submitted to with patience, and are often neither felt nor considered evils at all; and this is true, whether we refer to deformity, helplessness, or extreme poverty. But whatever may be the extent of these evils, it is doubtful whether they are not surpassed by the pangs of disappointed ambition, the stings of conscience, the bitings of envy, the failure of long-cherished hopes and schemes, the anxiety and care which the pursuit of wealth and distinction, and the effects of luxury and idleness, with